head tick repair options?

[cemille01]

Hello all,I am new to the cobra scene,I just purchased a 03 torch red tenth anniversary cobra from a member off here,bought the car knowing it had a head tick,car will behere Friday and I'm just trying to get all my eggs in one basket to repair it,so my questions are....do you have to replace the heads with the revised ones to eliminate the tick completly or can they be rebuilt to eliminate this? Where can I find the revised heads at a reasonable price? And if any of you have had the head swap done how much did it run ya? I live in hanover pa and am in search of a good tuner out this way to repair the car then tune it so if anyone knows any GOOD RELIABLE shops around here please lett me know,I priced it to get repaired at jpc racing and they wanted 2500$ just for the swap no tuning or nothing,so please get back to me guys I'm dying to kno what direction to go to get this out on the street asap thanks! -chad-

 

[hotcobra03]

head

Hello all,I am new to the cobra scene,I just purchased a 03 torch red tenth anniversary cobra from a member off here,bought the car knowing it had a head tick,car will behere Friday and I'm just trying to get all my eggs in one basket to repair it,so my questions are....do you have to replace the heads with the revised ones to eliminate the tick completly or can they be rebuilt to eliminate this? Where can I find the revised heads at a reasonable price? And if any of you have had the head swap done how much did it run ya? I live in hanover pa and am in search of a good tuner out this way to repair the car then tune it so if anyone knows any GOOD RELIABLE shops around here please lett me know,I priced it to get repaired at jpc racing and they wanted 2500$ just for the swap no tuning or nothing,so please get back to me guys I'm dying to kno what direction to go to get this out on the street asap thanks! -chad-

im in your shoes now...i had oem head changed by ford to the revised head..the new head has the same problem...i took the revised head and had it fixed when it broke..it lasted another 75k than broke again...i will be using the ford racing head new this time...this will cost me around 1500 to do myself...

so 1500 parts than shop 2500...is like 4 grand...how much did you pay for car? with problem

 

[prostkr]

A head swap should run about a grand for labor. Its so much easier just to drop out the engine to do it. I think price wise check with Tously ford (they are a vendor here) on a set of brand new revised heads. I believe that will be cheaper than repairing them and it will give you the better coolant flow and 8 plug threads too. Good luck!

 

[cemille01]

I payed 14,000 for the car,onlyhas 40,000 miles on it and about 10,000$ worth of modifications with receipts and all work was done by a good shop,i am going to diagnose the problem on Saturday to see if it is the head tick or not,from what the seller tells me it sounds like the tick,car runs and idles fine,no smoke and has oil pressure,he is running a motor craft oil filter and a synthetic blend oil 5w20 ,is the oil maybe part of the problem?I have read that synthetic oils make the valve train more noisy,a lot of guys on here has switched to 5w30 non synthetic blend and the tick got a lot quieter some even reported that it went away,I understand that its just a bandaid and won't fix it,but I will do so so I can drive the car and enjoy it until I can save up for the revised heads and labor cost ,is there any websites where I can look at the heads and prices so I know how much to save?has any of you changed to non synthetic blend and had success?

 

[cobracide]

Terminator FAQs

 

[cemille01]

So I just got off the phone with tousely and the heads are 2200$ shipped to my door,then I gotta pay to get em put on and gaskets and misc stuff,fml! Any how I called my local ford dealer and I can purchase a extended wrranty for 2500$ which covers me up to 104,000 miles ,I'm really leaning this way,anyone know if the tsb will be covered with this warranty??

 

[hotcobra03]

tick

So I just got off the phone with tousely and the heads are 2200$ shipped to my door,then I gotta pay to get em put on and gaskets and misc stuff,fml! Any how I called my local ford dealer and I can purchase a extended wrranty for 2500$ which covers me up to 104,000 miles ,I'm really leaning this way,anyone know if the tsb will be covered with this warranty??

ford covered mine but not because of the tick noise,,it just wouldnt run right..

the price of these heads make me mad...ford knows we will need them ..just awhile back heads were half that price..

i will be dumping my cash next week for parts to get me back up...ouch

 

[Bdubbs]

I payed 14,000 for the car,onlyhas 40,000 miles on it and about 10,000$ worth of modifications with receipts and all work was done by a good shop,i am going to diagnose the problem on Saturday to see if it is the head tick or not,from what the seller tells me it sounds like the tick,car runs and idles fine,no smoke and has oil pressure,he is running a motor craft oil filter and a synthetic blend oil 5w20 ,is the oil maybe part of the problem?I have read that synthetic oils make the valve train more noisy,a lot of guys on here has switched to 5w30 non synthetic blend and the tick got a lot quieter some even reported that it went away,I understand that its just a bandaid and won't fix it,but I will do so so I can drive the car and enjoy it until I can save up for the revised heads and labor cost ,is there any websites where I can look at the heads and prices so I know how much to save?has any of you changed to non synthetic blend and had success?

Really? Alot of guys on here have switched to a non synthetic motor oil? I would like to know who these people or thread is? Factory motorcraft oil is synthetic blend. Many members on here have switched to a different synthetic oil, such as mobil 1, royal purple, amsoil, ect. Yes many have switched to 5w30 but synthetic.

Also I would really get more info on that extended warranty, are you pullied, and will they cover it with such changes?

 

[cemille01]

Yea bro,I have no idea what direction I'm gonna take,for the price I'm gonna spend on heads and install I can save another 2200 and get a brandnew long block from tousely,and swap it out my self and send mine back and get my core charge back,I'm extremly depressed about the situation lol I am gonna diagnose it on Saturday to see if it is the tick,and if it is I'm gonna be kickin and tickn for awhile till I save up lol I'm stil gonna take it over to ford and see if I can't get the warranty inspection passed,and if I do I'm gonna purchase it and just get them to fix it

 

[hotcobra03]

head

Yea bro,I have no idea what direction I'm gonna take,for the price I'm gonna spend on heads and install I can save another 2200 and get a brandnew long block from tousely,and swap it out my self and send mine back and get my core charge back,I'm extremly depressed about the situation lol I am gonna diagnose it on Saturday to see if it is the tick,and if it is I'm gonna be kickin and tickn for awhile till I save up lol I'm stil gonna take it over to ford and see if I can't get the warranty inspection passed,and if I do I'm gonna purchase it and just get them to fix it

best of luck to you...

as to oil...i have 276,000 miles and this friggin head is the only thing that went bad..

i use castrol 5-20 6qrts and add a bottle of stp oil treatment...i change alot ,,,

 

[cemille01]

havnt seen many people on here that changed to regular oil,i googled it under cobra head tick,said in general that synthetic blend/full synthetic makes the valve train louder,couple guys on the net i found switched,as far as switching to 5w30,i dont know how good this would be for our motors cuz the tolerences being close,is it ok to switch to 5w30? cuz if its ok i may try it to see if it makes the tick any quieter,yes my car is pullied and has a sct programmer on it,guy at ford who i talked to about the warranty said it didnt matter cuz all it means is the aftermarket peices wouldnt be covered under warrnty if they broke, i already knew that lol they have to do a inspection to see if my car qualifys for the warranty to begin with,cars super clean only thing wrong is the tick,so if i can do anything to quiet it down for the inspection besides changing the oil to 5w30,please let me know asap,also if theres anyone here in or around the hanover area and could maybe swing by to check it out also would be a major help! im new to the cobra scene like i stated but not new to stang scene ,im always lookin for new people to cruise with too!

 

[cobracide]

havnt seen many people on here that changed to regular oil,i googled it under cobra head tick,said in general that synthetic blend/full synthetic makes the valve train louder,couple guys on the net i found switched,as far as switching to 5w30,i dont know how good this would be for our motors cuz the tolerences being close,is it ok to switch to 5w30? cuz if its ok i may try it to see if it makes the tick any quieter,yes my car is pullied and has a sct programmer on it,guy at ford who i talked to about the warranty said it didnt matter cuz all it means is the aftermarket peices wouldnt be covered under warrnty if they broke, i already knew that lol they have to do a inspection to see if my car qualifys for the warranty to begin with,cars super clean only thing wrong is the tick,so if i can do anything to quiet it down for the inspection besides changing the oil to 5w30,please let me know asap,also if theres anyone here in or around the hanover area and could maybe swing by to check it out also would be a major help! im new to the cobra scene like i stated but not new to stang scene ,im always lookin for new people to cruise with too!

Ok hang on here. I need rest after re-reading what I thought it said.

 

[cobracide]

Ok, Amsoil (or Redline) 0W is what I use. If you want to quiet the ticking, use a thicker grade.

 

[cemille01]

Yea I think I'm gonna try that that way I can get it to the dealer to apply for warranty

 

[jrgoffin]

Here is the original TSB for the "tick":

http://www.stangnet.com/images/stories/docs/sn95_TSBs/03-11-04.pdf

There is another TSB that calls for head replacement if you are experiencing misfires and rough running conditions. If you read this one, it says "Eligible under provisions of new vehicle limited warranty coverage". Here is TSB 06-05-13:

http://www.stangnet.com/images/stories/docs/sn95_TSBs/06-05-13.pdf

It's annoying, especially since the 4.6 is just a noisy engine, but not the end of the world in most cases.

 

[NVSnake]

^^^^ Does this mean if you have the head tick that the replacement of the heads is covered under warranty?

 

[jrgoffin]

I was told no...unless it was done back under the 3/36 warranty. Really sucks...

 

[03snkvert]

Why not just replace the bad head for now! I know it probably isn't the best way to do it, but if you are trying to save some money this would be one way to do it.

If you have the extra $ it may save you some hassle to just do them both. Even with the money you are going to spend, I still think you got a pretty good deal!

 

[Aaron175617]

Bronze guides?

It is my understanding that the head tick issue is due to abnormal wear in the valve guides due to poor cooling. Can’t we just have bronze guides put in and a cooling mod? My machinist said it shouldn’t cost more than $300/head for the guides. I do my own engine work, other than the machine work, so I think I can do just the left head for about $500 for the parts plus the cooling mod.

Don’t buy the extended warranty because it may not cover the head tick in particular if the car doesn’t run bad it’s just an annoyance and won’t be covered.

I tried running 10W 30 Mobil 1 oil but still have the tick.

I bought this car about a week ago it is an 03 cobra with the nine thread heads, 18k miles, Whipple and some other clean mods. The guy I bought it from said he had it serviced at a local Ford dealer and then shortly after that the head tick developed. The temp gauge didn’t show any overheating and coolant tank was full. I put the cooling system in a 25 psi vacuum and then refilled it and it took over three quarts more coolant than I removed. I believe that is what caused the tick and it is definitely coming from # 7 & 8 cylinders.

Vacuuming the cooling system is the only way I have found to insure that there is no air pockets in the system. I live in Phoenix AZ and if the cooling system has any air pockets in it, it will cook the engine quick.

Anyway, any thoughts on the bronze guides?

 

[timbo3282]

Yea I think I'm gonna try that that way I can get it to the dealer to apply for warranty

I doubt that the dealer is going to warranty the engine with all of those mods...

Typically those void the warranty.

I read 2 of your threads did you have the head tick or not? After changing plugs and getting tuned are you OK?